21st Panzer Division

The 21st Panzer Division was a German armored division that was active from 1 August 1941 to 29 April 1945 during World War II. The division served in North Africa, and its commander Georg von Bismarck was killed by a landmine at the Battle of Alam el-Halfa in 1942. By 7 November 1942, following the Second Battle of El Alamein, the 21st Panzer Division's strength had been reduced to just 4 tanks, and its new commander Heinz von Randow was also killed by a landmine, this time in Libya. By the time it reached Tunisia in 1943, it had been divided into two battle groups, and its remnants surrendered to the Allies on 13 May 1943. In June 1943, the division was reconstituted in France, and it was sent to occupy Normandy. The panzer division took part in heavy fighting during Operation Overlord in 1944, being the only panzer division to engage the Allies on D-Day (6 June 1944). The division was supposed to retake Bayeux, but its divisional staff was killed in a Royal Air Force air raid on its headquarters at La Caine. The division was forced to used captured French halftracks and other seized vehicles, as it lost 54 Panzer IVs from June to July and could only bring up 17 replacements. The surviving elements of the division were eliminated in the Falaise Gap, and three-quarters of the local German panzer forces' 223 tanks were abandoned or destroyed by their crews. The 21st was withheld from combat during the Battle of the Bulge, saving it from total destruction, and it was reformed as a much-reduced panzer division on 25 January 1945. On 29 April 1945, the division surrendered to the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front.